Seeking to increase domestic and international support for a new government in Iraq, an independent bipartisan group has been formed with the White House’s tacit approval to press for the ouster of Saddam Hussein.
Members of the hawkish group, the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, include former Secretary of State George Shultz, former Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.), Teamsters union leader James Hoffa and the former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) are expected to be the group’s honorary congressional co-chairmen.
The committee is modeled on a successful lobbying campaign to expand the NATO alliance and will engage in advocacy and educational efforts in the United States and Europe aimed at “freeing the Iraqi people from tyranny,” the group’s mission statement says.
On Friday, members are scheduled to meet at the White House with Condoleezza Rice, President Bush’s national security adviser, to encourage a long-term American commitment to developing democratic institutions in Iraq after Hussein’s regime is either toppled by a coup or removed by an American-led military offensive.
“We don’t believe in hit-and-run interventionism,” said Bruce Jackson, the Reagan-era Pentagon official who is the committee’s chairman.
Operating from an office near Capitol Hill on less than $25,000 in seed money from Jackson and Julie Finley, an influential Republican fundraiser, the committee plans to borrow many of the same low-budget methods used in the NATO enlargement campaign to spread its message.
Those will include making contact with journalists, holding dinner sessions with senior administration officials and meeting with editorial boards across the country.
With UN weapons inspectors expected to arrive soon in Iraq, committee organizers say they fear public support for removing Hussein and rebuilding Iraq’s political and economic institutions could slip without steady pressure.
“Support is never as deep as you’d like it,” said Randy Scheunemann, the group’s president and a former aide to Republican Sens. Bob Dole of Kansas and Trent Lott of Mississippi. “We’re looking at getting outside of Washington, from Spokane to Wichita.”
Scheunemann said committee members would also give the administration a “gut check” on its Iraq policies, especially on evolving a plan for governing a post-Hussein Iraq.
Some committee members were openly critical of the administration’s handling of the disparate Iraqi opposition groups. “I am disappointed we haven’t done more with the opposition groups earlier, not just militarily but politically,” said Wayne Downing, a retired Army general who was until recently the president’s principal adviser on terrorism.
Kerrey, who is president of the New School University in Manhattan, said ousting Hussein would benefit Iraqis. “There is a moral case for this beyond just the political arguments,” he said.
